Young people who traveled from Central America want to demonstrate the richness of their culture and talent in their country

‘Not everything is violence,’ say the members of ‘El Salvador, great as its people’

‘El Salvador, great as its people’ appeared on Sunday in downtown LA. (Yurina Melara)

Photo:
Yurina Melara / Impremedia

The musical band El Salvador will perform at the traditional Rose Parade, which will be held on January 1 in Pasadena (California), with the aim of demonstrating that the Central American country “is not just violence,” according to some of its members.

With a delegation of 230 people, including musicians, dancers of traditional folk dances and giant stilts, on Friday the group began a series of presentations at the Disney California Adventure Park, which will continue their participation in the parade with which the south from California receives the new year.

“We want to show that in El Salvador there is not only violence, but there is a lot of culture, a lot of talent,” said María José Escobar, 12, one of the dancers in El Salvador, great as her people, full name of the group, although they are also known as Los Salvis.

The members of the band are mostly young people from low-income communities in El Salvador, some of whom did some extra work in their country to defray expenses and be able to be part of the 131st Rose Parade, which will run along about 9 miles of the Pasadena Colorado Boulevard.

“They are going to feel very happy, because they know that we are going to humbly represent our country and we are going to stop El Salvador,” said Escobar Castellanos, when asked about how she thinks her countrymen will feel when they watch them on television.

El Salvador, great as its people is one of the 20 national and international bands (there are also delegations from Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and Mexico) that will parade in the event, which this year has as its central theme “The power of hope” and It includes a total of 39 decorated floats and equestrian groups.

The young dancer, originally from the municipality of Cojutepeque, says she is a pride and will do her best for her nationals when she is part of the parade, which is estimated to congregate some 750,000 people and be seen in the country by some 56 million viewers .

M bandmusic He appeared on Sunday before hundreds of his countrymen in LA. (Yurina Melara)

The saxophonist José Mauricio Magaña López, 28, said they are delighted to contribute tropical rhythms to the Rose Parade, which will also be broadcast in more than 170 countries.

"It only takes (to arrive) on January 1, to show all Latin America and the whole world that El Salvador will be present," said Magaña López.

In the repertoire that young Salvadorans will interpret, there are songs such as “El carnival de San Miguel”, “Adentro Cojutepeque”, “El Carbonero” and “Patria querida”.

In the United States there are about 2.5 million residents from El Salvador and for them the band played Sunday at the Miguel Contreras School in Los Angeles, and today they will participate in the great party of bands that under the Parade will be held at the Pasadena College.

Enot Rubio, organizer of the Salvadoran delegation, said that “the cost of representing El Salvador in the Rose Parade is half a million dollars”, an amount covered by the joint effort of “the community”, private companies and the Presidency From El Salvador.

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